7738 Harvey MacKay Keynote - Amazon S3€¦ · get to 50 million viewers, the Internet five short years to get to 50 million users. Your customer today is way more knowledgeable,

0

Harvey’s Keynote By Harvey Mackay

Harvey Mackay

www.gmrtranscription.com

1

Speech to Buffini & Company on August 6, 2013.

Tony Love (emcee): Ladies and gentlemen, we are truly in for a blessed time here today

with our next speaker. Many of you may know Harvey Mackay

and there may be some in this audience today that may not be too

familiar with Mr. Mackay. So, what I’d like to do is share the

vastness of the insight and the wisdom that he holds that he’s going

to be sharing with us this morning. Harvey Mackay is Chairman

of MackayMitchell Envelope Company, a business he founded in

Minneapolis in 1960. The company employs 500 people and

manufactures 25 million envelopes per day with annual sales of

$100 million.

Harvey tells me he loves the envelope industry because you can

only use an envelope once and then you have to come back and

order more. His greater loves, however, are his wife of 53 years,

Carol Ann, their three children and 11 grandchildren. Harvey is

the author of Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive,

which was on The New York Times bestseller list for 54 weeks,

rated the No. 1 business book in the United States for 1988. It’s no

wonder Sharks has been endorsed by dozens of well-respected

opinion leaders such as Billy Graham, Charles Schwab, Ted

Koppel, Gloria Steinem, Robert Redford and Larry King to name

but just a few.

In 1990, his next book Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His

Shirt, became his second New York Times No. 1 bestseller. Both

Swim With the Sharks and Beware the Naked Man were recently

listed by The New York Times among the Top 15 most inspirational

books of all time. In 1997, Harvey wrote his third New York Times

bestseller, titled Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty. Two years

later he published his fourth New York Times bestseller in Pushing

The Envelope, a book of business and life lessons. In 2004, he

released We Got Fired! … And It’s the Best Thing That Ever

Happened To Us. It became his third New York Times No. 1

bestseller. Harvey interviewed 28 famous Americans who were

fired and landed on their feet.

In 2010, Harvey unveiled his sixth New York Times bestseller, Use

Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door: Job Search Secrets No

One Else Will Tell You. His new book, The Mackay MBA of

Selling in the Real World came out in November 2011 and made

the New York Times bestseller list in the first week. Harvey’s

books have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide; have been

translated in 46 languages and distributed in 80 countries.

http://www.gmrtranscription.com/

Harvey Mackay


2

He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and the Stanford

University Graduate School of Business Executive Program. In

2004, Harvey received the prestigious Horatio Alger Award in the

Supreme Court Chambers in Washington, D.C. Previous

recipients include Presidents Eisenhower, Ford and Reagan, former

Secretary of State Colin Powell and entertainer Oprah Winfrey.

He’s an avid runner, having run ten marathons, and a former No. 1

ranked tennis player in the State of Minnesota. Harvey’s a

nationally syndicated columnist. His weekly articles are

distributed in a hundred newspapers across the country with a

circulation over 10 million.

I can’t imagine why Fortune magazine refers to him as “Mr. Make

Things Happen.” Ladies and gentlemen, please give a thunderous

mastermind welcome for Mr. Harvey Mackay.

Mr. Mackay: Thank you. SRI, Stanford Research Institute Think Tank, Palo

Alto, California, did a substantive, in-depth survey on audiences.

I’d like to share the results with you if I could this morning so that

I can tailor my remarks to this specific audience. I’m going to hold

up three symbols. You have five seconds to pick one of the three.

One should give you peace of mind. One you should be able to

identify with. One should be more relaxing to the eye than the

other two symbols. Usually, your first choice is your right choice.

Don’t tell your neighbors. You’ve got five seconds to pick one of

these three – five, four, three, two, one.

Okay, how many picked the triangle? I have to know for later on.

Raise them high. Thank you very much. Test scores show you

have unusually high intelligence. I see someone started to raise

their hand now. I’m glad you’re not in the envelope business. I

don’t want to compete with you. Who picked the square? Not too

many. Test scores show you have unlimited creativity. And how

many picked the circle? Raise them high. Look at your neighbors.

Thank you very much. Stanford Research Institute – test scores

show your minds preoccupied with booze and sex.

Is this Buffini? Am I in the right room? This is Buffini and

Company? Now I know what kind of audience I’ve got, a lot of

entrepreneurial spirit for sure.

Tony, thank you very much for that terrific introduction. But I

can’t get carried away, and for the following reason: Delta

Airlines, Flight No. 367, New York/Detroit. I got on the airplane


Harvey Mackay


3

and sat down next to a business man. Ten minutes into the flight,

business man reaches into his briefcase, pulls out my book, Swim

With the Sharks and starts reading it. I go crazy.

I said: “How do you like that book?” “Well,” he said, “My boss

gave me a choice of three business books to read. I picked this one

because it was the shortest.” Word for word, exactly what he said.

How many might have read Swim With the Sharks? How many

might have read Beware the Naked Man? Whoa, thank you. How

many don’t give a damn?

Before I get into my formal remarks, let me talk about some

changes that are going on in our country. I don’t care what

industry we’re talking about – banking, insurance, securities, food

industry, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, your industry –

there have been more changes in the last three, four or five years

than the previous 15 to 20 years.

Go get the S&P, Standard and Poor’s 500 list, lay it down from

1957. Go get the S&P list 2013, lay it down side by side. Guess

what? There are only 75 companies remaining. The other 425 are

gone, history, belly-up, merged, purged, pushed off the list by

more creative managements, and you’re going to hear that word a

lot – creativity -- the next 60/70 minutes. Fast forward, 2020,

experts won’t be wrong. There’ll be 375 new companies on that

S&P list that don’t appear today … don’t know where they’re

coming from, never heard of them, wow. I call that “only in

America.”

This is a true story. One day someone said to Yogi Berra, “Did

you hear they just elected a Jewish mayor in Dublin?” Yogi said,

“Only in America.”

The Internet is the most powerful force in the world today. It took

radio 37 years to get to 50 million listeners, television 13 years to

get to 50 million viewers, the Internet five short years to get to

50 million users.

Your customer today is way more knowledgeable, way more

intelligent, way more demanding, way more sophisticated than

ever before, and he or she wants more for less.

Let me share this with you. I found it very recently. It’s kind of

beyond comprehension. When I was growing up as a kid, the GDP


Harvey Mackay


4

was in the hundreds of millions then it went to the billions then to

the trillions. Now we’ve got about a $13.8 to $14 trillion

economy. Every single week, I can catch NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox,

CNN, it doesn’t matter, New York Times … they interchange

trillion for billion. We’ve been so desensitized to these numbers.

So, I want to put it in proper perspective, all right? We’re not

going to sleep, none of us, we’re going to count to a trillion right

now hypothetically. I want everyone in this room to predict to

yourself how long is it going to take us to count to a trillion?

You’ve got five seconds. Answer – 31,688 years to count to a

trillion. You can prove it on the computer. So, when you see

those numbers bandied around, I think you’ll have a little bit better

respect of what they’re doing to us in Washington.

I found this very recently. A little boy wanted $100 badly. He

prayed for two weeks but nothing happened. Then he decided to

write God a letter requesting the $100. Postal authorities received

the letter addressed to God, USA. They decided to forward it to

President Obama.

The President was so impressed, touched and amused that he

instructed his assistant to send the little boy a $5 bill. He thought

this would appear to be a lot of money to the little boy. The little

boy was delighted with the $5 and sat down to write a thank you

note to God, which read: “Dear God, thank you very much for

sending me the money; however, I noticed that for some reason

you had to send it through Washington and as usual, those

bureaucrats deducted $95.”

So, this morning I’d like to talk to you about some ideas, concepts,

philosophies, tools that can help you prepare for excellence, even

when you’re already very successful. My definition of success is

having a predetermined plan, successfully carrying it out over a

long period of time and having a damn good time doing it. They

are plain, simple, common sense ideas. Please remember – please

remember, they happen to work for me. If one or two happen to

work for you, use it in your business, use it in your life, terrific. I

like to call that take-home value.

Well, somebody might say well, wait a minute, I’m already doing

that. But I submit to you, can you improve upon what you’re

already doing? Somebody might say I tried that five, ten years

ago, and it didn’t work. Well, strategies and tactics change. What

didn’t work for you five years ago could work for you today.


Harvey Mackay


5

Some of you might say hey, that’s a pretty good idea, I think I’ll do

it when I get back to my business.

So Idea #1, some of the best people spend their most productive

time looking out the window. Let me tell you a story about a hard-

driving entrepreneur. Tickets to the New York Philharmonic,

they’re going to be playing Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, one

of his favorites. Suddenly, he can’t attend. So, he decides to give

his tickets to one of his key employees, his Efficiency Expert or

what is now known as his Work Study Management Executive.

The entrepreneur comes back in town two days later, “How’d you

like the concert?” And the Work Study Management Executive

was ready. He hands his boss a memo and it went something like

this:

A.) For considerable periods of time, the four oboe players had

nothing to do. The numbers should be reduced and their work

spread over the whole orchestra, thus eliminating peaks of activity.

B.) All 12 violins were playing identical notes. That seems like

unnecessary duplication. The staff of this section should be

drastically cut. If a large volume of sound is really required, this

could be obtained through the use of an electronic amplifier.

C.) No useful purposes served by repeating with the horns the

passage that’s already been handled by the strings. If all such

redundant passages were eliminated, concert could have been

reduced from two hours to 20 minutes. If Schubert had only paid

attention to these matters, he probably would have been able to

finish this symphony after all.

Every organization has people who can see the big picture. Don’t

get bogged down with a lot of meaningless meetings and paper

shuffling. So when you see one of your key people looking out the

window, catch yourself looking out the window, congratulate

yourself. You are probably doing the company a lot more good

than anything else you’re doing. You’re thinking. It’s the hardest,

most valuable task any person performs without question.

I wish I would have said this but I didn’t. Robert Frost did. “The

mind is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get

up in the morning and doesn’t stop until you get to the office” –

Robert Frost.


Harvey Mackay


6

And there’s no correlation, zip, zero, none between IQ and

creativity. Every single person in this room can become way more

creative than you ever dreamed about. Again, I hope you agree

with me in the next 60 minutes. If I give you a dollar, and you

give me a dollar, we each have a dollar. If I give you an idea, and

you give me an idea, we each have two ideas.

When anything’s been done the same way over a long period of

time, sometimes it’s a good sign it’s being done the wrong way.

So, what am I saying? Think big, think bold, think creative, think

stretch, think quantum leaps. Always think becoming a

differentiator, think vision, think speed, think customize, think

focus, think flexible. Sometimes it’s risky not to take a risk. Let

me put it differently. If you walk backwards, you’ll never stub

your toe.

Let’s go back to vision. Helen Keller, totally blind, age 6 months,

brilliant author, brilliant lecturer, cum laude graduate, Radcliffe

College, she’s making a speech on a college campus, time for

Q&A. A mean spirited questioner asked her the following: “Tell

me Ms. Keller, is losing your eyesight the worst thing in the world

that can happen to anyone?” “No,” she said. “It’s losing your

vision.” You see, eyesight is what we see in front of us. Vision,

all the way down the road.

The American Management Association did a study a few years

back and asked 500 CEOs and Presidents: What do you have to do

to survive the next five years? 81 percent said creativity and

vision. Now get this. Of the 500 CEOs, 81 percent of them said

that their company is not doing a good job at it.

So what is this creativity we’re talking about? We’re not talking

rocket science stuff. All we’re doing is finding a new or improved

way to do anything. That’s all.

I love to study creative companies. I love to talk to creative

people. And whenever I get a chance, that’s exactly what I do.

Recently I was talking to George Pilant, RE/MAX Professionals,

Washington State, 23 years in the industry, ten years with

RE/MAX, seven years with Buffini. George told me that he

traveled to India for his brother’s wedding back in 1999 when he

was getting started in the industry. He brought along a portable

SOLD sign and placed it in front of the Taj Mahal, took his photo

in front of it, used that photo as a postcard and sent it out to his

people. It read “One man built the greatest monument to love the


Harvey Mackay


7

world has ever seen.” And then underneath, in smaller print, he

wrote “I just sell real estate, but I do it with great passion.”

His clients still talk about that postcard 14 years later. He’s done

other versions of Buckingham Palace and Mount Rainier. These

have helped him stand out in his local market.

I was talking to Mark Fell, President, Absolute Mortgage, Denver,

started his company 18 years ago, 11 years with Buffini. Mark

told me about a customer who moved to the Colorado Springs area

from out East. When Mark learned of the area’s forest fires, he

called to make sure his customer was okay. A day later, the

customer called him back in panic when he received an evacuation

notice. His home was filled with sports memorabilia. Mark went

down for four or five hours, 4:30 in the morning to help him pack

up everything. His house was spared. That’s what I call going the

extra mile.

I was talking to Greg Allen, Sea Coast Exclusive Properties, out of

San Diego right here, 17 years with the company, 13 years with

Buffini. Greg told me how he was the listing agent for a house that

just closed and went over to meet the new owner. When he

arrived, he found the driveway was dirty from the previous

owner’s plants. So despite being in a suit, he got the hose, sprayed

off the driveway. The next door neighbor came over and asked if

he was the new owner. No, he explained that he was the realtor

who listed the house and was just getting it ready for the new

owner. The neighbor was so impressed that he asked Greg to

come over to his house after he was done because he wanted to list

his house with him.

I have a daughter, Mimi, who lives out East. She has twin boys

and twin girls. Every year for the last 25 years she sends out a nice

holiday card. 98 percent of her friends thank her for this holiday

card. How does she do this? She sends it out in March. Why get

involved with a gazillion other cards during the holidays?

I was talking to Heather Valentine, owner of Valentine Properties,

Richmond, Virginia. She started the company with her husband

2008, nine years in the industry, eight years with Buffini. Heather

told me that she talked to one guy about his dream house years

ago. She remembered and three years later, she came across the

house she thought he’d like. So she called the guy. He put an

offer right on the spot. She listed his house, sold it, all in three

weeks time. That’s what I call listening to your customers.


Harvey Mackay


8

I was talking to Donna Ravnikar out of RE/MAX, Philadelphia,

12 years industry, all of RE/MAX, ten years Buffini. Donna told

me she received a call from a Chinese businessman the day after

Christmas. He was being transferred to the area from China and

wanted to look at rental properties. A real bummer, let alone the

day after Christmas, maybe at best a thousand dollar commission.

But Donna took him anyway. He went back to China the next day.

Donna kept in touch, emailed him several properties to consider

buying. He ended up buying a townhouse, sight unseen. He

trusted – the most important word almost in the English language,

Donna and a friend to pick it out. He recently sent three of his

Chinese coworkers to Donna who bought homes after being

transferred to the States. Wow.

I also asked Donna if she had only 60 seconds to tell a group what

made her successful. She said, “Three things: 1.) Accountability,

2.) Accountability, 3.) Accountability.” Her Buffini coach holds

her accountable and calls every two weeks. She knows exactly

what she must do. She says the resources and data are great, but

the coaching is the best.

Just a quick brief aside here and let me editorialize if I can for just

a moment at the risk of embarrassing Brian who’s probably

backstage watching right now. But I’m a very candid guy. Brian,

I tell it like it is. And regarding your organization on a scale of 1

to 10, with 10 being the best. Brian, I can’t give you a 10, but I’m

going to tell you the reason. And the reason is you’re a 15. Let’s

give him a hand. And I couldn’t be more sincere.

I was talking to Karen Eberson, Realtor, Keller Williams, Atlanta,

three years Keller Williams, 11 years Buffini. I asked Karen if she

had 60 seconds to tell the group what has made her successful.

She said try and get face to face with people. Do everything you

can of course to build relationships. You all know this, but she

encourages her customers to call her for anything and they do.

She’s a trusted advisor, medical, legal, accounting, social, the

whole gamut. I’ve been practicing this philosophy since I’ve been

21 years old. Let me tell you, this philosophy is one of the most

powerful strategies in all of selling. This has enabled Karen to get

a ton of listings.

Talking to David Shallow, RE/MAX Professionals Select,

Naperville, Illinois, 31 years in the industry, 30 years with

RE/MAX, seven years with Buffini. David told me about a


Harvey Mackay


9

potential client whom he learned was big into Disney collectibles.

He was in a Borders book store, going out of business, found a

Pirates of the Caribbean coffee table book on sale for a mere five

bucks so he bought it and delivered it. He’s received 20

transactions from this person, their family and friends. And that is

not a typo. Little things mean a lot. Not true. Little things mean

everything, and you’ll hear me say that five more times.

I have a personal friend in Paradise Valley, Arizona. His name is

Greg Hague. He’s in real estate. He writes a weekly column for

the Paradise Independent Newspaper. There’s 11,000/12,000

people that live in Paradise Valley. There are 6,000 homes. That

newspaper gets delivered to all 6,000 homes with his column in it,

every week for five years. What does he talk about? He doesn’t

talk about real estate. Who wants to hear that for 52 weeks in a

row. No, they’re just all personal stories, pride stories, which are

so very, very important. Every human interest story you can

conceive of. He has guests come in sometimes, interviews them,

who have been successful. Every person virtually in Paradise

Valley knows Greg Hague.

Now, the story even gets a little better. He has to pay $500 a week

to have that article. But, he doesn’t spend a penny. He’s investing

in himself. These are my words, not his. I guarantee it’s five, ten,

15 fold that investment comes back and, again, it even gets better.

In the last two and a half years, he’s gone out and gotten sponsors

for that column.

So, I submit to everyone in this room, there might be two, five,

eight, ten, 15 of you, think about it, just an idea, think about it.

People are starving for those kinds of stories in your local

newspaper.

Most creative person I ever learned about, a real estate tycoon from

New York City rolls into a Miami Bank. He says his wife wants to

jump over to the Bahamas. He needs a fast $3,000. The banker

said, “I don’t know who you are.” He says, “I have a very

successful real estate office in New York City.” Banker said,

“That doesn’t matter. I’d have to have some collateral.”

“Well, I got a brand new Cadillac outside.” “Fine.” The banker

jumps all over it, takes the Cadillac, signs the note. A week goes

by. He comes back, pays off the $3,000 note and $25 interest for

the week. The banker says, “I don’t understand sir. I looked at

your application, called New York City. You’re a very successful


Harvey Mackay


10

real estate operator. Why did you have to come into my bank and

borrow a paltry $3,000?” “Can you think of a better place to keep

my car for seven days for $25?” Think outside the box.

Next idea: Practice makes perfect. Not true. You have to add one

word. Perfect practice makes perfect. Practice something time and

time again, if you don’t know what you’re doing, all you’re really

doing is perfecting an error. You’ve put a ceiling on how good

you can become. For those of you who are golfers, you can play

eight days a week. You can practice eight days a week and if you

have a loop in your swing, what are you doing? You’re perfecting

an error. You’ve put a ceiling on how good you can become.

I studied the Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic languages and

quite frankly people think, they think I’m a heck of a linguist.

[Speaking foreign language] Catch that? Guess you’ll have to

take my word for it. Actually, I’m a lot slower learner than most

of the people with whom I started my language classes, but there’s

one marked difference. I started with all of them, but I finished

and they didn’t. Let me repeat that. I started with all of them, but

I finished and they didn’t.

In Russian, it might take 200 hours, Japanese 300 hours, Mandarin,

Chinese 400 hours, but eventually the breakthrough does come.

And when it does, it’s like a stonecutter hammering away at his

rock 100 times without a dent in it and yet on the 101st blow, the

rock will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it

but all that had gone before. If you’re not willing to practice and

practice until you get it right, you’ll never make the 100 blows that

make the breakthrough on the 101st.

Let me give you an example. Chinese, yes, tough language.

Twenty percent of all Chinese words are spelled exactly the same

way. Problem is, they have two to four totally different meanings.

How would you pronounce yen? It’s an everyday Chinese word.

How would you pronounce yen four different ways? Let me help

you. It goes yen, yen, yen, yen. Now, this yen means salt. This

yen means cigarette. This yen means to perform, and this yen

means to swallow. So if you want to count from one to ten in

Chinese or Mandarin, [speaking foreign language]. Perfect

practice makes perfect –

Okay, everyone in this room. You all made the decision. You’re

all going to become fluent in Chinese. You’re going to give it your

best efforts. I want a show of hands. How many think they can do


Harvey Mackay


11

it? You’re going to give it your best efforts, give it all you got.

Let’s see a show of hands. All right, that’s terrific, that’s about a

third of the room. To the two-thirds that didn’t raise your hands,

piece of cake. There’s over a billion people that speak Chinese.

Everyone in this room can become fluent in Chinese if you

practice the right concepts over a long period of time.

I made this list out fairly recently about all the coaches I have.

I’ve got a personal trainer, I have a speech coach, I have a foreign

language coach, I have a humor coach, idea coach, marathon

coach, golf coach, tennis coach, skiing coach, swimming coach,

dancing coach (thanks to my wife). I’ve got a memory coach,

Internet coach, social media coach. Why do I have all these

coaches? Because whatever my God-given talent is. Whatever my

God-given potential is, that’s it. I can’t do any better. I make a

decision, have a project, whatever I want, get the best coach and

the best advice I can, give it all I’vc got, have a time and action

calendar, that’s it. I don’t have to ever worry again. That’s the

reason why I’ve got all these coaches.

And so it’s very, very important, again, you must remember, you

have to pick and practice the right concepts over a long period of

time. And I know some of you are saying yes, he’s got some

money, he can hire all those coaches. I’m making an investment in

myself.

And this one, write down, underline it, put it under your pillow and

always remember this. The biggest room in the world is the room

for improvement. Repeat. Biggest room in the world is the room

for improvement.

I know some of you. I’ve talked to a dozen of you. I’ve seen your

programs. I’ve read your literature. You guys haven’t hit your

peak yet. And you know that personally. But see, almost all of

you, it’s all up to you.

Next idea. Believe in yourself even when no one else does. Life is

not a parabolic curve. It doesn’t go straight up. There are a lot of

lumps, a lot of bumps. A lot of throttling up, a lot of throttling

down. I have never yet met a successful person that hasn’t had to

overcome either a little or a lot of adversity in his/her life. And I

think if you analyze that statement, you will agree with me.


Harvey Mackay


12

When things aren’t going right for me, in my Minneapolis office, I

swivel around in my chair and look on the wall. You can’t hear

this enough.

Anytime you feel like quitting throughout your career, perhaps

you’ll remember this story of one of our people. He failed in

business in ’31, ran as a state legislator and lost in ’32. Tried

business again in ’33, failed again. Sweetheart died in ’35, had a

nervous breakdown in ’36. Defeated for Congress in ’43.

Defeated again for Congress in ’48. Defeated when he ran for the

Senate in ’55 and defeated for the Vice Presidency of the United

States in ’56. He ran for the Senate in ’58, and he lost again. This

man never quit. He kept trying until the last. In 1860, this man,

Abraham Lincoln, was elected President of the United States.

Seems like if we want to triple our success ratio, we might have to

triple our failure rate.

I’m talking about failure. What about the wimpy guy who hovered

over his drink in a bar. In comes 6’6” monster, bells, whistles,

tattoos, boots, chains, elbows him right off the barstool. “How do

you like that, sonny boy?” “Listen mister, I’m having a bad day. I

went to work this morning and got downsized out of my job. Then

I went home to tell my wife the bad news and she left me. They

stole my car this afternoon, and now I come in here to commit

suicide and you drink my poison.”

Remember the four-minute mile? They’ve been trying to do it

since the days of the ancient Greeks. They found the old records,

how the Greeks tried to accomplish this. They had wild animals

chase the runners, hoping that would make them run faster. They

tried tiger’s milk, not the stuff you get down at the supermarket.

I’m talking about the real thing. Nothing worked.

So, they decided it was physiologically impossible for a human

being to run a mile in four minutes. Our bone structure is all

wrong, wind resistance is too great, inadequate lung power … a

million reasons until one day one human being proved the doctors,

the trainers, the athletes themselves, he proved them all wrong.

Miracle of miracles in the two years after Roger Bannister broke

the four-minute mile, another 24 runners broke the four-minute

mile. Wow.

I’ve got a daughter, Mimi, I just held up her picture. She called me

up years ago. Hey dad, let’s take a crack at running the New York


Harvey Mackay


13

Marathon. I trained for six months. They shot the gun off in the

air, 23,000 runners started, 20,000 runners finished, 1.5

million people lined the streets. First place, a Kenyan, two hours,

eight minutes, 11 seconds. Last place finisher, 20,000th

runner,

crossed the finished line, a Vietnam veteran, four days, 19 hours,

7 minutes and some odd seconds. This human being covered

26 miles, 385 yards with no legs. He ran on his hands. My

daughter and I had passed him in the first few minutes of the race.

It wasn’t too difficult to finish the race after that.

So, who says that you can’t accomplish your goals? Who says that

you’re not tougher and better and smarter and harder working and

more able than your competition? It doesn’t matter if they say you

can’t do it. The only thing that matters is if you say it. So, we all

know, if we believe in ourselves, there’s hardly anything that we

can’t accomplish.

Briefly, you can’t, of course, believe in yourself without goals.

What is a goal? A goal is a dream with a deadline. Repeat. A

goal is a dream with a deadline – measurable, identifiable,

attainable, specific, in writing. Pale ink is better than the most

retentive memory, which means you write those short-term goals

down and write those long-term goals down.

Next idea. Things are not necessarily as we always perceive them

to be. All right? Example: Mother in the kitchen, hollers up to

her son, “You get down here. You’re late for school.” Son hollers

back, “I’m not going to school. I don’t want to go to school. The

kids don’t like me. The teachers don’t like me. Everyone’s talking

behind my back. I don’t want to go to school.” His mother rushes

upstairs, pushes the bedroom door open, points at him and says,

“You get out of bed this very minute. You’re going to school for

two reasons: 1.) You’re 41 years old and 2.) You’re the principal

of the school.”

Try and figure out this riddle. Please don’t holler out the answer.

Ten lines, here we go, fasten your seatbelts. To yourself solve the

riddle. A man and his father traveling by car. Car stalls on a

railroad track. A train comes along hits the car. The father is

killed instantly. The man is severely injured. They take the man

to the hospital. The surgeon takes one look at the man and says, “I

can’t operate on this man. He is my son.” How can that be? Five

seconds. Answer: The surgeon is his mother. How many got

that? Need a show of hands.


Harvey Mackay


14

Okay. That’s 20 percent. Fifteen years ago, it would have been

5 percent. Today, 20. Ten years from now, 40. Hopefully 15, 25

years down the road, it will be close to 100 percent. See, it took us

30 years to figure out that African-Americans can manage football

and baseball teams and hopefully someday own them and, of

course, Michael Jordan broke that barrier. Thirty years to figure

out that women can do the tough jobs as well as men.

Here’s the stats from just a couple months ago. Our colleges,

universities across America. Sixty-five percent of all the pharmacy

graduates last year were women, 63 percent of the auditors and

accountants were women, 41 percent MBA’ers, women;

43 percent, law school, women; 48 percent, medical school,

women graduates. Women entrepreneurs are multiplying two,

three, four times faster than men, depending on which part of the

country that you study. And according to Carlson Wagonlit, the

world’s largest travel agency, women business travelers will equal

their male counterparts in the next three to five years, up from

18 percent 25 years ago, which is wild.

Now, here’s what I call Man Bites Dog. Women entrepreneurs

and women business owners employ more people than all of the

Fortune 500 companies combined. And as of two years ago, there

are more women business owners than their male counterparts.

So, you see, some of these social paradigms have been shattered.

Oh, incidentally, I found this 48 hours ago. This is MIT,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 20 years ago, 17 percent

were women. The class that they just took in, more than

50 percent, women, at MIT. Wow.

Next idea: The boat won’t go if we all don’t row. Teamwork,

teambuilding. What is teamwork? Sounds corny, sounds

sophomoric, sounds shop worn, sounds ho hum. Nothing could be

further from the truth. What is teamwork? It’s a collection of

diverse people who respect each other and are committed to each

other’s successes. And when you get that, you’ll slam your

competitors into the pavement, and you’ll hand them their heads.

I’ll walk around St. Paul and Minneapolis and business people

come up to me and they’ll say how many envelope sales people do

you have. I say 500. Five hundred people selling envelopes?

How many employees you have? Five hundred. Everyone sells

envelopes at our company. Everyone has their antennae up.

Everyone’s bringing in ideas, shipping, cutting, doesn’t matter


Harvey Mackay


15

what, adjusters, they’re bringing in ideas – Did you see this

envelope? Hey look at Readers Digest, two shiny pennies. I heard

they sent out 20 million. Do we call on them? All right. Very

important and then guess what? We reward them creatively,

incentivize them, creatively with crisp, crunchy, crackly, cold, hard

cash. And we even give it to our sales force when they open up

new accounts. We pay off in cash.

And of course it’s very important not to forget assistants and

gatekeepers. They should have their antennae up as well. Are you

trying to incentivize them a little bit and everywhere they go,

whether it’s chamber meetings or friends or church or synagogue,

whatever? Little things mean a lot. Not true. And you know the

answer.

Best story I’ve ever heard on teamwork. Fellow was driving a car,

30 miles outside a big city. Rain storm comes up, car stuck in the

mud, he walks 30, 60, 90 seconds, raps on the farmer’s door,

farmer opens the door. “My car is stuck up on the highway, might

you be able to help?” The farmer says, “I have a blind mule

named Elmo out in the back.” “Fine.”

The farmer trudges Elmo through the muck and mire, hooks him

up to the car, farmer hollers out, “Pull Sam pull.” Nothing

happens. “Pull Bessie pull.” Nothing happens. “Pull Jackson

pull.” Nothing happens. “Pull Elmo pull.” Elmo rips and roars

that car right out of the mud. The driver is confused. “I don’t

understand. Why did you have to call out all those different

names?” “Look. If he didn’t think he had any help, he wouldn’t

even try.”

Now, if Brian told me before I went on, we’ve got an emergency.

I’m sorry, you only have ten minutes, good luck. This is it, the

next ten minutes. Head and shoulders above the rest. Idea:

People don’t care how much you know about them once they

realize how much you care about them.

What’s a perfect example of an organization not in touch with

people? My choice would be the military. You see, a general

doesn’t see it’s his job to figure out what a private is thinking. It’s

the general’s job to tell the colonel, to tell the major, captain,

lieutenant, sergeant, corporal, private what to do. Good generals

are a little bit different though, I happen to think of General

Westmoreland, very controversial, but he always wanted to figure

out what his troops were thinking about. I shared the podium with


Harvey Mackay


16

him on a cruise ship. He told this story on himself. I think it tells

exactly what’s behind his thinking.

Anyway, Westmoreland is in Korea long time ago in the ’50s and

he’s speaking to 10,000 Korean cadets out in the audience. They

don’t obviously speak English, so there is an interpreter. Most

speakers like to open up with a humorous story, Westmoreland no

different. He takes 45 seconds, tells a humorous story. Interpreter,

standing right next to him, takes 7 seconds. All of a sudden,

10,000 Korean cadets hollering with laughter, Westmoreland is

outraged. “What’s going on here?” He says, “I take 45 seconds to

tell a story, you take 7 seconds, they’re all hollering with laughter,

what did you tell them?” “I tell them American general tell funny

story, everybody laugh.”

Now, we’ve invented a new product at the MackayMitchell

Envelope Company and as you might have guessed, it isn’t an

envelope. It’s a 66 question customer profile we require all of our

sales people to fill out. You wouldn’t believe how much we know

about our customers. The IRS wouldn’t believe how much we

know about our customers. And I’m not talking about their taste in

envelopes either. We want to know, based on routine conversation

and observation, what a customer is like as a human being. What

he or she feels strongly about. What he’s most proud of having

achieved. Any status symbols in his/her offices. In other words,

we want to know what turns that human being, client, customer on.

Now, before we go to the 66, here’s your final exam, first of two.

I’m going to holler out a question. Please don’t holler out the

answer. We will go around the room. Winner gets my shark tie.

I’ve got an extra one here. It will keep you shark proof. Okay?

Raise your hand if you think you know the answer. Don’t holler

out the answer. I know those in the back, it’s very difficult. Okay,

here we go. Am I going too fast for anyone? Question. What’s

the sweetest sounding word in the English language? I saw his

hand up so fast before I finished. Sweetest sounding word in the

English language?

Paul Smiley: A person’s name.

Mr. Mackay: And what’s your name.

Paul Smiley: Paul Smiley.


Harvey Mackay


17

Mr. Mackay: Let’s give him a big hand. The sweetest sound in the English

language is the sound of your own name on someone else’s lips.

Now, when you not only remember their name but individual

characteristics about them, now you meet the real test of

salesmanship. You not only get the order, you get the reorder.

Okay. So, here’s the 66, very succinctly, and this is critical, this is

not just for customers though. It’s for every supplier we have. I

want the best ink supplier in the world, the best paper supplier, the

best box supplier, the best machine supplier. I want the best

advertising agency I can find. Anybody that walks through our

front door.

There is no difference between a supplier and a customer, and

that’s how I built my business. Again, very briefly, here are some

of the 66 questions. We want to know birth date and place, of

course, education, high school, college honors, extra-curricular

activities, marital status, spouse’s education, spouse’s interest,

activities, children, names, ages, children’s education, business

background, previous employment, clubs, professionals, politically

active, active in his/her community, lifestyle, hobbies, recreational

interests, vacation habits, what do you feel is the customer’s long-

range personal objective.

Question No. 66 on the form, does your competitor have more and

better answers to the above questions than you do? This is a

concept philosophy tool. It doesn’t answer all the questions, but

dramatically increases the probability you will get the business.

People buy from other people because of likeability, because of

chemistry, because of people skills. Yes, you have to perform. If

you don’t perform, throw the 66 in the trash can. Perform, build a

deep relationship and you all know what I’m talking about. You’re

not going to lose that customer over a long period of time.

Very, very briefly. I could have my whole sales force, 30 people,

get up here. They could keep you here for a week, 24/7. Here’s

my favorite story. I was calling on the No. 2 envelope account.

He wouldn’t see me for about a year then he started to see me.

Never bought from me. But I built the 66 all the time. I make a pit

stop on him one day, he’s not there. I’m close to the gatekeeper,

and she tells me that his son, 11 years old, got hit riding his

bicycle, and is in Abbott Northwestern Hospital. I know from the

66 that the kid plays hockey. And his father is the coach. I go to

the Minnesota North Stars, our professional hockey team at the

time, and get 20 players to sign a goalie stick. The kid plays


Harvey Mackay


18

goalie. I shipped the goalie stick to the hospital with a note. Ten

million dollars later in envelope business. Ten million. Little

things mean a lot. Not true. Fill in the answer.

Every person you meet. They don’t have to be customers. You

should have a deep down, burning desire to find out about them, a

little bit.

I’m a lucky guy. My best friend in the whole world, outside my

family, we’re joined at the hip. We call each other brother. Many

of you are familiar with him. His name is Lou Holtz. Last

30 years, we talk virtually almost every day. Now, I want to tell

you, if you met Lou anywhere in the country, I guarantee you, in

blood, before you walk away, he’ll look you right in the eye and

say, “If I can ever help you, let me know.” But he means it.

That’s the difference. He means it. So very, very important.

Now, the Buffini Software Referral Maker, of course, is

outstanding. You should be taking a look at and use it.

Knowledge does not become power until it’s used. Ideas without

action are worthless. I don’t know what percentage use it, 80,

90 percent of those that haven’t, hey, go back and revisit it. This is

the way, again, to go deep, very, very deep. Now, also the 66

allows me in go deep. You know, we go to birthdays, of course,

but hey, birthday cards, come on.

For 30 years, I had 250 accounts, all 250, eyeball to eyeball, a

creative gift on their birthday. We do it with all our accounts – we

have 3,000 accounts in 20 countries. Our sales force, everyone of

them in the States, they have to look at that customer eyeball to

eyeball, he or she, and bring a creative gift on their birthday.

We’re not buying their business, just thinking out of the box from

the 66, going deep to their interest, to what they love. That’s what

you can do. And you can do it, of course, for anniversaries. You

don’t have to stop at birthdays. Every one of you can get better.

Our people, our sales force, can still get better.

Anybody that wants can hit my website, harveymackey.com, that’s

M – A – C – K – A – Y, harveymackay.com, you can pick up my

column. I’ve been doing it for 20 years, just wrote my thousandth

column a couple weeks ago after 20 years and it’s still going

strong. Thank you. If you want to pick it up, 750 words,

marketing ideas like what you’re hearing up here, just sign on,

that’s all, go there, sign up, obviously no cost.


Harvey Mackay


19

Brief aside. I’m launching a new app in six to nine months on my

66 and here’s how I do it, real simple. We forget 50 percent of

what we hear in four hours, all studies indicate. Go into any client,

any customer, anywhere, come out. Before I even start my car,

boom, I dictate ten, 20, 30 things from the conversation.

Everything personal, of course, for sure, goes right to my

computer. Now, I’ve got this anywhere in the world. Now I can

be anywhere. I get a call from my customer, whenever I pick it up,

just scroll, I’ve got his whole life right here, her life right here for a

couple of bucks. Boom, boom, boom – oh, how’s Mary? How’s

your mother-in-law’s broken leg? Oh, I see your son graduated

from high school, how’s he doing?

As I talk, I scroll and I’m just talking to him or her. All right. This

is what you can do. I’ve been doing this for 50 years. When I was

21, I came up with my 66 questions. I’ve been doing it manually.

Now, I have, of course, technology at its best. Okay, let’s bring

this a little bit closer to home. Stay with me, fasten your seatbelt.

Let’s say I’m one of you. Okay. I’m one of you and the realtor’s

out there and an A-plus account or it can be, again, as you know,

mortgage broker, but I’m going to call on an A plus account. This

is potentially a really good account, big account. He doesn’t know

I’ve prepared to win. He doesn’t know I’ve done my homework.

He doesn’t know what’s up in here before – before I’ve made a

call. That’s what counts – before you ever see them for the first

impression. No matter what kind of referral you get, which is

fabulous, but you can prove your value and your worth of course,

but there’s no substitute to add this, superimpose this on top of

everything else.

It doesn’t matter whether I’m selling envelopes, widgets, nuts and

bolts, insurance, securities. Again, big account, A plus. Let’s say

his name is Brian Tienken. Is Brian here somewhere? Where’s

Brian? I can’t even see. Oh, there you are. Thank you. That’s

fine. Have we ever met before?

Brian Tienken: No.

Mr. Mackay: Never met him, big account, potential, want the business. So, I roll

in. Again, he doesn’t know I know this. He doesn’t know what’s

up here. He’s owner and principle broker, Brian Tienken &

Associates, RE/MAX, out of Beaverton, Oregon. So, I know that

Brian’s birthday is January 1. He was born and raised in Lindsay,

California, now resides in Beaverton. Brian graduated from


Harvey Mackay


20

Lindsay High School, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Degree in

agricultural business, pledged Alpha Gamma Phi fraternity.

Brian’s married to Kim. Their anniversary is April 13. She’s the

office manager at the company and Director of Marketing. Brian

and Kim have three children: Michael, age 27, works and lives in

Beaverton; Scott, age 24, broker in the firm; Megan, age 20, junior,

University of Portland. She’s working at a golf course this

summer. Brian likes to fish, -- he has boat -- hike, workout, travel,

brew homemade beer, volunteer at his church where he is a

dedicated member. He’s an avid reader of personal growth books.

He follows college football, especially Oregon State and the

Pac-12. Also follows the San Francisco Giants. Kim enjoys

hiking, working out, entertaining, reading.

Michael runs and competes in obstacle courses. Scott enjoys

working out and cooking. Megan likes to swim and do-it-yourself

projects. Brian has worked for the company for 30 years,

purchased it from his father in California, moved to Oregon. Son

Scott is now the third generation at the company. Prior to that, he

worked with his brother in an agricultural business. Brian is

bright, committed, dedicated, energetic, loyal and he has a great

sense of humor.

Now, I submit to everyone in this room, what’s the probability I

will sell Brian over a long period of time? And you’re doggone

right. It’s almost 100 percent. Now, if I don’t know anything

that’s going on, I’ll read the desk, I’ll read the walls. You can’t

work at MackayMitchell Envelope unless you can read upside

down. I’m kidding. But hey, I’ll CAT scan him, I’ll MRI him, I’ll

know how many cavities he has inside his mouth.

You want to go deep in the relationship. Every relationship, every

A plus, you want to be 100 percent all in and don’t ever forget this.

The difference between 100 percent all in and 99 percent all in is

100 percent. Write it down. You cannot, under any set of

circumstances, know enough about your customers, your suppliers,

your competitors, your audiences, your employees.

Example: Al gets a phone call from Harold. Harold says, “You

coming to the Rotary tomorrow?” And Al says, “Yeah.” Harold

says, “I got a problem, my guest speaker just cancelled, might you

be able to fill in?” Al says, “Yeah, sure, okay.” Harold says,

“What might you talk about?” “I don’t know, I’ll talk about sex.”

“Fine.” Next day, 45-minute speech, standing ovation, comes


Harvey Mackay


21

home. His wife says, “How’d the speech go?” He said, “Fine.”

“What’d you talk about?” Al’s smart enough to know that his wife

thinks that he doesn’t know anything about sex so he says,

“Skiing.” “Oh,” she says, “I see, skiing.”

Next day, Al’s wife is at the supermarket. There’s Harold’s wife

an aisle away. Harold’s wife hollers out, “Hey, talked to my

husband. Heard your husband gave a great speech at Rotary, he

must be terrific.” And she says, “I don’t understand, he’s only

done it once and his hat blew off.”

Next idea. It isn’t the people you fire who make your life

miserable. It’s the people you don’t fire who make your life

miserable. Whenever I say that, I get more amens than a Billy

Graham sermon. Anyone who thinks he/she is indispensable, stick

your finger in a bowl of water and notice the hole it leaves when

you pull it out. Wall Street Journal went out and asked 500

executives, presidents, CEOs, top execs, what’s the toughest thing

you have to do?

Ninety-two percent said fire another human being, terminate

another person. But now as Paul Harvey would say, “Here’s the

rest of the story.” Virtually all of those executives said, “I should

have done it a lot sooner.” None of them ever said gosh, I wish I

had Paul or Mary back on the payroll. Find something you love to

do, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. That’s what you

want on the payroll. We call it TGIM, Thank God It’s Monday. I

know that 80 percent of my 500 people can’t wait to get to work on

Monday.

How do I know that? Because we call them in, open door, we

want constant, immediate, unfiltered feedback from not only our

customers but from our people, very important. Now, you coach

them, you work with them. If things don’t work out, they might

have to jump to another lily pad. You can disagree with

everything I’ve said so far, but one thing, none of you will ever

talk me out of this one sentence and don’t forget it. If you ever

have to fire another human being as long as you live and he/she is

shocked or surprised, guess what? You are a poor manager.

Agreements. Agreements. Agreements prevent disagreements.

You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game. You can’t

raise the bar in the middle of the game. It all starts with hiring,

which hopefully you might get to in a few minutes, so very, very

important. Fight your guts off for an agreement, you won’t have a


Harvey Mackay


22

disagreement, you coach them along the way, they should not be

shocked.

I could sit up here, again, for one week, give you 10,000 people

that have been fired, best thing that ever happened to them. I

remember President Ronald Reagan fired Warner Brothers. Tom

Peters fired. Lou Holtz, fired at Arkansas. Walt Disney fired for

lack of ideas. True story, look it up.

Next idea. And we’re rumbling. There are two times in life when

you’re totally alone – just before you die and just before you make

a five-minute speech. Or if you doubt the concept of eternity, try

and make a five-minute speech. Now, when I’m talking to

accountants and lawyers and doctors and of course all of you, most

of you are in sales, I will say to them, and they really stiffen up,

every single person in this audience is a salesperson whether you

like it or not. Why? What are you doing all day?

From the moment you get up in the morning to the moment you go

to bed, what are you doing? You’re communicating, you’re

negotiating, you’re persuading, you’re influencing, you’re selling

ideas. And if you don’t believe that then I feel sorry for you. You

have to recognize that and most of you do but not the rest of the

United States. All 300 million people, they’re all salespeople. So

how do we get better? How do we do that? Well, best kept secret

that I know of almost in the world, Toastmasters International.

How many belong to Toastmasters or have belonged to

Toastmasters?

Okay, that looks like 5 percent. If we had time, we’d get all

5 percent up here, one at a time, trust me, most of them, if not all,

will say one of the best decisions they ever made in their life.

Why? Because you become a better leader if you get up on your

feet. There’s no difference in making a presentation, husband and

wife, kitchen, at their home, your office, wherever, but if you can

think on your feet, you’re a better presenter. That’s what’s critical,

very critical. Toastmasters International can teach that. I’m a

proud member of Toastmasters International.

I’m a proud graduate of the Dale Carnegie school. I don’t care

where you go, night school, wherever, your four-year college,

two-year college in your neighborhood, but think about it. Every

single one of you, you’re all making presentations as you know. I

just say to each and every one of you, don’t you be the judge on a

scale of 1 to 10 if you’re a 10, but let a coach decide if you’re a 10.


Harvey Mackay


23

Let a speech coach, let someone at Dale Carnegie, let someone at

Toastmasters, they’ll tell you if you’re a 10. If you’re a 6, 7 or 8,

your income automatically will shoot up. There’s no question you

can do it. It really does. It just helps you immeasurably.

Ten days ago, I had the thrill of a lifetime. I met one of the

greatest salespeople, salesmen, in my life and regardless of your

political persuasion, doesn’t matter, that’s not what I’m talking

about. I’m talking about what I learned. I was in Israel ten days

ago for two weeks and I spent almost an hour and a half, one on

one with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and here’s what I

learned. Again, we forget, we forget 50 percent of what we hear.

As soon as I came out of the meeting, boom, right to my driver and

started writing down everything I could think of. Here’s what I

wrote down about this leader.

Charisma, humor, content, poise, confidence, conviction, passion,

focus, engaging smile, eye contact, handshake, modulated his

voice, he’d whisper and then a bellowing laugh. And guess what?

Every person in this room can learn those skills. You’re not born

with those. You learn them. So, you haven’t hit your peak yet and

you can all get better. And I was just blown away quite frankly.

So, when you are making presentations, you want to get in front of

as many people as you can and then just blow them away.

I mean how about Rotary meetings or Kiwanis or Chamber of

Commerce and pick a subject or a skill or photography or – you

don’t have to talk about real estate. That’s how you want to get

known. You want to be in front of people. That’s how you get the

order. That’s how you get the business. I’ve seen five

presentations the last 30 days, dull. I tell you, I’d rather watch two

guys fish. I mean terrible, just terrible.

Next lesson, briefly, here’s your next final exam. Okay, winner

gets this $100 bill right here. Now, I know most of the people in

the first 20 rows might have an advantage, but here we go. Please

don’t shout out the answer. Raise your hand. This is my question

and this is what I think is the right answer. So, you gotta get my

answer, but I’m going to prove to you why it is the right answer.

Okay, hundred dollar bill, just raise your hand, we’ll go around the

room until we get it. Question: When you list a home, what is the

single most important thing you look for to know you’ve got a

great listing? What do you say?


Harvey Mackay


24

Female Speaker: Motivated sellers.

Mr. Mackay: Woo, you get a hundred dollar bill. Wow, wow, I can’t believe it.

I thought I would get – oh, I’d thought I’d get location and price

and blah, blah, blah and blah, blah, blah. A seller – did you all

hear what she said? Motivated sellers. You gotta be in the upper

10 percent of your class. I was so sure I was going to fool you. A

seller who’s desperate of course, to sell is like dollars in the bank.

Once they’ve listed their home with you, you know they’re going

to sell because they have to. It’s better than a buyer because no

buyer has to buy, and buyers can leave you any day because most

of them don’t sign a contract with you.

Okay, moving along. Next lesson: Always act like your mother is

watching. I want to talk about ethics for a few minutes. There’s

been a consistent, gradual decline in ethical business practices in

the United States for about 50 years. And it’s reached new

extremes lately in every institution that can be measured. Senators,

congressmen, local and state politicians, religious institutions,

business leaders, sports heroes, students cheating in college and

many, many more.

So, let me give you an example of ethics. A mother was invited

for dinner at her son Brian’s apartment. During the course of the

meal, Brian’s mother couldn’t help but notice how beautiful

Brian’s roommate Jennifer was. Brian’s mom had long suspected

a relationship between Brian and Jennifer. Over the course of the

evening while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if

there was more between them than met the eye. Reading his

mom’s thoughts, Brian volunteered, “I know what you must be

thinking, but I assure you, Jennifer and I are just roommates.”

About a week later, Jennifer came to Brian saying, “Ever since

your mother came to dinner, I’ve been unable to find the beautiful

silver gravy ladle. You don’t suppose she took it do you?” “Well,

I doubt it,” Brian said, “But I’ll send her an email just to be sure.”

So he wrote, “Dear Mom, I’m not saying that you did take the

gravy ladle from the house and I’m not saying that you did not take

the gravy ladle, but the fact remains that one has been missing ever

since you were here for dinner. Love, Brian.”

Several days later, Brian received an email back from his mother.

“Dear Son, I’m not saying that you do sleep with Jennifer and I’m

not saying that you do not sleep with Jennifer, but the fact remains


Harvey Mackay


25

that if Jennifer had been sleeping in her own bed, she would have

found the ladle by now. Love, Mom”

If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have

integrity, nothing else matters. Or always take the high road

because it’s less crowded. All right, we’ll just slip in one quickie

and then close with two points. Make sure you know who’s

buttering your bread. Bill Bradley told this story on himself. Goes

into a Philadelphia restaurant, sits down, orders dinner, busboy

comes up, puts a pat of butter and a roll there. Bradley says, “I’d

like another pat of butter.” “One pat of butter to a customer.”

“Don’t you know who I am?” Busboy says, “No.”

“Well, my name is Bill Bradley, graduated No. 1 in my class,

Princeton University, Associated Press All-American, first-round

draft choice NBA, Rhodes Scholar, elected U.S. Senator.” “Those

are very impressive credentials Mr. Bradley. Don’t you know who

I am?” “No, who?” “I’m the man in charge of the butter.” There

will always be someone in charge of the knives and the forks and

the plates and the butter and we’ve gotta be nice to everyone. It’s

nice to be important, but more important to be nice.

And then, well, I think – let’s see. Well, we’ll slip in one more

quickie. How many people talk to themselves? This is important

to me. How many people talk to themselves? All right, we got

three-quarters. So, the 25 percent that didn’t raise your hands, I

can just hear you now saying to yourself, “who me?” I don’t talk

to myself. Hey, but I want you to talk to yourself. I want you to

coach yourself also. I want you to ask yourself how you’re doing.

That’s what I do all the time. Make a commitment to yourself. I

want you to elevate yourself. Ten most powerful two-letter words

in the English language. If it is to be, it is up to me. You must

ignite your own passion.

And then, oh gosh, just write this down, just trust me. Okay, I

don’t have time to go into it, just trust me. Sam Richter, R – I – C

– H – T – E – R.com, samrichter.com. You don’t have to be a

techie. It’s the invisible web. You can have some of your people

do it. How do you think I got some of the information on the 66?

You can find out – unbelievable, beyond comprehension, whether

your client is a Democrat, Republican, who he or she gives to,

what their golf scores are, where they play golf, everything, on the

invisible web, samrichter.com, R – I – C – H – T – E – R. Okay.


Harvey Mackay


26

Second to the last, Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty. What’s

one of the most important words in the English language if all of

us understand just a little bit better, we’d be way more successful

than we already are? My choice would be rolodex, the rolodex

file. My father, head of the Associated Press in St. Paul,

Minnesota, for 35 years, got a hold of me age 18, Harvey, every

single person you meet the rest of your life goes in the rolodex

file. Write a little bit about that person on the bottom or the back of

the card. Now, here’s the key.

Find a creative way, underline creative way, to keep in touch and

that’s what I’ve been doing ever since I was 18. Very, very

important. I want to talk about the publishing industry for a

minute. There are 2 million “wannabes,” people that wrote

manuscripts last year. 200,000 books got published, 11,000 were

business books. If you’re a first-time, unknown author and you

write a business book, you want to get published. All the major

publishers will print 10,000 hardcover books, that’s it, period.

Doing it for 40 years.

All right, so I’ve got Swim With the Sharks in 1988. Now

remember, you want to print a lot of books so they won’t run out.

There were 5,000 bookstores back in the ‘80s and ‘90s and that

was boom, two books a store if they print 10,000. Tough to get

started. So, I’ve got Swim With the Sharks manuscript and

schedule a summit meeting with William Morrow and Company,

CEO, President, VP of National Sales. Boom, 45 minutes into the

meeting I ask for the order.

And so then maybe I may just want to back up a minute. Tom

Peters, In Search of Excellence, 10,000; Ken Blanchard, 7,500

books, I mean, this is really tough to get started.

Back to the meeting. Okay, CEO, president, VP of National Sales,

45 minutes into the meeting, I ask for the order. I said, “I would

like you to seriously consider printing 100,000 hardcover copies,

Swim With the Sharks. We’re on the 37th

floor, they told me to

jump. CEO, VP Marketing, closes his book, thank you very much

Mr. Mackay. Obviously, we’re not going to get together. Then he

screams at me, “Who are you coming in here asking for 100,000?”

He’s laughing at me. “We only print 10,000 copies.”

I’d brought in two humongous brief cases underneath the table,

we’re in the boardroom, took them out, then took out two huge,

huge rolodex files, 6,500 names since my father got a hold of me.


Harvey Mackay


27

I started to go through them: Pillsbury, 18,000 employees, do

business with a lot of them, maybe they’ll read the book, pass it

along; General Mills, 23,000; Cargill, here’s 3M, here’s American

Express, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Oh, we do business, it was then six countries, France, Germany,

Spain, maybe it’ll be an international bestseller. Three weeks,

three meetings later, they published 100,000 hardcover copies

Swim With the Sharks. Thank you. Did I know when I was 18

where my contacts were going to come from? Do any of you

know where your contacts come from?

Our lives basically change in two ways, books we read and the

people we meet. And yes, it’s nice to hear speakers. Trust me, the

person on your left, right, side by side, front and back, way more

important over a period of a lifetime in building that network, just

so very, very important. Build that network.

Now, I should say one other thing. I had World War III with my

publisher. I wanted to be the first, back in ’88 to offer a money

back guarantee if you don’t like Swim With the Sharks. Fought for

six weeks, but they finally did it, all right. Five million books sold

the first year, still selling a quarter of a million 25 years later.

18 people asked for their money back in the first year, and seven of

them were my best friends. Very important.

So, just do me a favor – if you have this book (The Harvey Mackay

Network Builder), don’t pick it up, but just try to remember my

whole life is in it. You can’t get it anywhere else. Pages 55 to 76,

if you’re taking notes, and please, please, please though, do not

read this book when you get home. Don’t read it. Study it,

underline it, highlight it, use post-it notes, then you’ll have your

MBA. And not just my book, but any self-help book.

Okay, if I had to name the single characteristic shared by all the

successful people that I’ve met over a period of a lifetime, it’d be

the ability to create and nurture a network of contacts. So, if you

want one year of happiness, hey, you grow grain. Want ten years

of happiness, you grow trees. Want a hundred years of happiness,

you grow people and that’s how you become healthy, wealthy and

wise.

Let’s just close it now, put some fun and creativity into your

business and into your life. I want to come at this from a little bit

different angle here, this last idea. Here’s a letter I received


Harvey Mackay


28

recently from a daughter to her parents. She’s away for the first

time at college and she writes home for the first time:

“Dear Mom and Dad. Sorry to be so long in writing lately, but all

my writing paper was destroyed the night the demonstrators

burned down the dormitory. I’m in a hospital now and doctor says

my eyesight should be back to normal sooner or later. Hey, that

wonderful boy Bill who saved me from the fire kindly offered to

share his little apartment with me until the dorm is rebuilt. He

comes from a good family mom and dad so you shouldn’t be too

surprised to learn when I tell you we’re going to get married. In

fact, mom and dad, you always wanted to have grandchildren so

you should really be happy to know you’re going to be

grandparents next month.

Please disregard the above practice in English composition. There

was no fire, haven’t been in the hospital, I’m not pregnant and I

don’t even have a boyfriend. But I did get a D in chemistry and an

F in French and I wanted to make sure you received this news in

the proper perspective.” And she signs it Love, Mary.

Now, you’ve all been sold creatively one time or another. So, back

to publishing, again, very quickly, when an author, he/she writes a

book, they like, when it comes off the press, publisher likes to send

it to you right away, first copy. Ten years ago, Dig Your Well

Before You’re Thirsty, I’m in my office, Monday morning, I got

the book. Hey, it’s your baby. You’ve been working on it for two

years, you’re proud. I immediately picked up the phone and I

made a call from Minneapolis.

I called Larry King. He’s a very good friend, been on his show

several times before, wouldn’t be standing here if it weren’t for

Larry King, and I phoned him on his hotline and I got him. And I

said Larry, I just wrote a book, Dig Your Well Before You’re

Thirsty, might we be able to get together and if you think it’s got

merit, I’d like to get on your show again. He said are you going to

be in New York on Thursday? I lied, yes, said I’ll see you at the

Ritz Carlton Hotel, where he always stays, 6:30 for dinner, hangs

up the phone. I hang up the phone.

Ironically, USA Today, and I love that publication, King’s had a

column in there for the previous 14 years, and the column was on

Muhammad Ali, how he met him at the Academy Awards. Now,

here’re the exact words. He said, “Couldn’t sleep last night, chills

running up and down my spine.” Verbatim, right from the column.


Harvey Mackay


29

I immediately cut the column and I faxed it to the Champ. Why

could I do that with Muhammad Ali?

I had interviewed him for ten hours at his 88-acre estate in Berrien

Springs, Michigan, 45 minutes from the Notre Dame Campus and

so therefore, FYI, to his wife Lonnie also. Twenty minutes later, I

had both of them on the phone. He was talking then and he said

thank you very much, made a little joke about living out in the

sticks and how they appreciated me sending the article because

they probably never would have seen it. I said, “Hey, Champ, and

Lonnie, I’ll greet Larry. I’m having dinner with him this Thursday

night in New York.” They said they’re going to be in New York

on Thursday.

I pleaded with them to come to dinner with us, but they had a

rehearsal at Radio City. I hung up the phone and called them three

hours later. The answer was still no. Called six hours later. Yes.

A little persistence. I said be there at 6 p.m.. He’ll go nuts – 6:00

Thursday, Ritz Carlton Hotel, Lonnie, Champ, myself, backs to the

front door, in comes King whistling I suppose, you know, 6:30, not

looking any great excitement about having dinner with me, sees

the Champ, no exaggeration, bear hug left, bear hug right, kisses

him left cheek, right cheek, forehead, on the lips.

He’s got springs in his mouth. He knows boxing. He used to write

for the Miami Herald, incredible, all right, Zaire, Thrilla In Manila,

Angelo Dundee, the man – he knows everything boxing. Forty-

five minutes later, a nice looking woman comes up, pen and paper

in her hand, she looks at the three of us and says, “Oh,

Mr. Mackay, I’ve read all of your books, can I have your

autograph?” Her name was Marlene, wrote a little note. She starts

walking away. King gets up – “Miss, would you please come back

here?” And she didn’t hear that because of the noise in the

restaurant. He then stands up, “Ma’am, would you please come

back here?” She heard that. She comes back, “Don’t you know

who this is? This is Muhammad Ali. Don’t you want his

autograph?”

I looked at Larry and said, “Larry, you bit it hook, line and sinker.

I paid her $50.00 an hour ago to come and ask for my autograph,”

which I did. She was the catering manager at the Ritz Carlson

Hotel. Got there an hour early to set it up. The Champ holds up

his hand to give me a high-five. King is calling me every name in

the book. But I still got on his program.


Harvey Mackay


30

Again, fun, creativity, differentiator, outside the box, that’s what’s

so very, very important.

Now, why do I end on this? Because I know the Champ or I know

Larry King. Nothing could be further from the truth. There’s a

moral to this story. Don’t be boring. Don’t be predictable. Don’t

ever pick up the phone again and call a client or a customer

without having a sharp or humorous something substantive to say

and know how you’re going to end that conversation all of the

time. Don’t give just another gift, but make it creative and out of

the box, make it a wow. Don’t ever send another letter out without

giving it a lot of thought. Don’t ever give just any gifts to

grandchildren and significant others, everything and everybody,

that’s what’s important. That’s the moral to the story.

David Ogilvy, many of you have heard of him. Great, great, great

advertising genius said, “Nobody ever sold anybody anything by

boring them to death.”

I have to apologize. I should have mentioned this ten minutes ago,

but I’m sorry. But this is my last speech. I’m never going to give

another speech again as long as I live and that’s what I said when I

came through those doors a couple of hours ago.

That’s what I say every time before I make a speech. This is my

last speech. And that’s what I do when I make an acquisition next

week, hopefully in New York, I’m never going to make another

acquisition. When I played in the NCAA Golf Tournament, I said

this is the last putt I’m ever going to hit. You make a presentation,

you say up here to your brain bank, this is the last presentation I’m

ever going to make, which means it better be damn good. That’s

the mindset. That’s how you take your game to the next level.

Don’t count the years, make the years count. You’ve been a

marvelous audience, honored to be here. Thank you very much.

Tony Love: Hey! Harvey Mackay ladies and gentlemen! Harvey delivered a

powerful session, did he not? Yes, indeed. You know as I’m

listening to his presentation, with the fondest of memories, I’m

thinking back to my father. He passed away a couple of years ago.

And thank God that I’m going to meet him again just by his faith.

What really touched me was this: as Harvey was speaking, the

wisdom, the lessons, the insight and I was fondly remembering just

sitting at my father’s feet and thinking about all of the different

things that he shared with me, some that I used that present day,


Harvey Mackay


31

some that I would carry with me throughout my lifetime and still

use today.

The little golden nuggets that really set well in me and just like my

father, kinda had eyes in the back of his head, knew a lot about me

that I thought he didn’t know, so awesome job in really knowing

us. I truly felt like one of Harvey Mackay’s A plus. Did you as

well? Yes, indeed. Now, I know you’re on your way out. This is

what I want to share with you. Brian shared that Mastermind – and

I tell you this group continues to exceed all of the expectations,

everything that we always imagined about you. Mastermind 2014

is sold out.

Awesome job, but this is what I want to share with you. This is

what I want to share with you. I told you yesterday next year

we’re going to be, and for the next three years, we’re going to be at

the Manchester Grand Hyatt and there’s always kind of a

movement and adjustment of the seats as we get in there and kind

of configure it. What I want to share with you, and this is the

commitment of Mr. Brian Buffini, Buffini and Company there, we

want to always honor you. If you sign up for Mastermind 2014

here, we’re going to get you in. Enjoy lunch; be back at 2:15,

powerful session this afternoon.

[End of Audio]

Duration: 90 minutes


Documents

7738 Harvey MacKay Keynote - Amazon S3€¦ · get to 50 million viewers, the Internet five short years to get to 50 million users. Your customer today is way more knowledgeable,